International dividing trains

[hi2u_uk]

On social media there are various videos making fun of the fact that some trains in the UK divide and that you have to be in the correct part of the train. Does this not happen in other countries ? im surprised its surprising for people

 

[JB_B]

On social media there are various videos making fun of the fact that some trains in the UK divide and that you have to be in the correct part of the train. Does this not happen in other countries ? im surprised its surprising for people

Of course trains divide in many countries. Perhaps the people posting are so used to air or coach travel that they don't realise it's completely normal.

 

[biko]

It used to happen a lot in the Netherlands with all intercity trains to the north divide into a part towards Groningen and one towards Leeuwarden. Nowadays, only some trains to Maastricht have a part for Heerlen.

Next to that, many night trains on the continent have multiple destinations and often combine with parts from other trains.

 

[Bemined]

In the Netherlands it is pretty common for long distance trains to leave one trainset behind after the busiest part of the route. There is the occasional oddity (comes and goes with timetable changes) where a service advertised as through service is in fact not a through service after all. One trainset would start in Maastricht but only run until Alkmaar, a second trainset is added in Eindhoven and run until the end in Den Helder. In the journey planner they show it as a through service from Maastricht to Den Helder, but if you want to actually take this service you will have to change from the rear to the front trainset at some point between Eindhoven and Alkmaar.

 

[43096]

Next to that, many night trains on the continent have multiple destinations and often combine with parts from other trains.

ÖBB regularly divides/joins its RailJets e.g. at Wien Hbf a portion for Budapest and a portion for the Airport. Similarly, they can split/join at Salzburg.

 

[StephenHunter]

Standard for many sleepers in Europe.

 

[signed]

It is a routine part of a part of TGV journeys in France as well

 

[The exile]

Standard for many sleepers in Europe.

Not so much an issue with sleepers, of course, as people tend to have reserved berths / seats.

 

[Gloster]

Some of the Danish ones can, or at least could, divide three times. Before electrification IC3 sets from Copenhagen used to drop a portion at Fredericia for either Esbjerg or south Jutland, possibly a portion at Vejle, they could leave a portion at Aarhus, detach a portion at Langå for Struer and possibly leave a portion at Aalborg if continuing to Frederikshavn.

 

[stadler]

Germany has a train that divides in to four separate portions. It is formed of four separate units. It starts off as an eight coach service and then splits in to four separate portions along the way. Carriages 1 and 2 (first unit) go to Bayreuth as the RE30 route. Carriages 3 and 4 (second unit) go to Hof as the RE31 route. Carriages 5 and 6 (third unit) go to Schwandorf as the RE40 route. Carriages 7 and 8 (fourth unit) go to Weiden as the RE41 route. This service must cause so much confusion especially as divides are not as common over there.

Even in the UK i have never heard of a train that splits in to four portions. Here in the UK we used to have a few split in to three portions. There used to be an evening peak booked service to Tonbridge and Horsham and Reigate that split at Redhill. I also remember a long time ago during engineering work they were running Caterham and Tattenham Corner and Reigate services that split at Purley. But these days we only have standard two way splits.

Estonia technically has a few trains that divide but they are not advertised as such and are instead shown as three separate services. There are some trains from Tallinn to Tartu that then divide with the front portion forming a Valga service and the rear portion forming a Koidula service. But on the screens and timetables they are usually shown as three separate Tallinn to Tartu and Tartu to Valga and Tartu to Koidula services.

Amtrack in the USA still have a couple of long distance services that divide. There is a Chicago to Seattle and Portland service that divides at Spokane. There is a Los Angeles to Chicago and New Orleans service that divides at San Antonio. Possibly a few others that i have missed.

 

[StephenHunter]

Even in the UK i have never heard of a train that splits in to four portions. Here in the UK we used to have a few split in to three portions. There used to be an evening peak booked service to Tonbridge and Horsham and Reigate that split at Redhill. I also remember a long time ago during engineering work they were running Caterham and Tattenham Corner and Reigate services that split at Purley. But these days we only have standard two way splits.

The "Highlander" Caledonian Sleeper is still three portions - Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William. The train splits at Edinburgh and the latter part gets some day coaches added.

 

[hi2u_uk]

Here is an example

if you look on tiktoks and the comments it seems people in many countries are surprised about dividing trains

 

[D6130]

Some International TGV services between Paris and Milano do - or did - join and divide with Annecy portions at Chambery-Challes Les Eaux.

 

[Halish Railway]

Some of the Danish ones can, or at least could, divide three times. Before electrification IC3 sets from Copenhagen used to drop a portion at Fredericia for either Esbjerg or south Jutland, possibly a portion at Vejle, they could leave a portion at Aarhus, detach a portion at Langå for Struer and possibly leave a portion at Aalborg if continuing to Frederikshavn.

When I took a train from Aarhus to Copenhagen in May 2023 it was one unit from Aalborg Airport, one from Aarhus, one from Fredericia and one from Odense. The units from Fredericia and Odense were detached at Copenhagen Main station, with the units from Aalborg and Aarhus continuing to Copenhagen Airport.

Regarding long distance trains that divide, it’s much easier to with services that have compulsory reservations, as you’re always booked into the right carriage, unless you have what happens on Nightjet where the formation of the coaches is messed up and you’re told to move.

For example with TGVs, the carriages are numbered 1-8 or 10 and 11 to 18 or 20 and are listed as two separate services when travelling in the direction of the split. My train from Bordeaux to Paris where one set came from Toulouse was advertised as one service if I remember correctly.

 

[JKP]

Last year I took a train from Ghent which divided at Korinj into two, one for Poperinj and the other for Lille.

 

[Struner]

NS koplopers were designed with (un-)coupling in mind. but they considered it too cumbersome so the “doorlopers” (“walk-throughs”) were downgraded to koplopers

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Spain has a few portion workings left on the Norte with Cl 120 sets splitting / joining at Miranda de Ebro to / from Bilbao and Irun. My favourite working was the loco- hauled 'Camino de Santiago' which sadly sucumbed to COVID - it had through coaches from both Bilbao and Irun to both Vigo and La Coruna. I once travelled from Ourense to Santiago on the La Coruna portion - a single coach, diesel hauled on the classic line!

 

[MarcVD]

Last year I took a train from Ghent which divided at Korinj into two, one for Poperinj and the other for Lille.

It used to be a very common practice on the Belgian network. Now this practice has faded away because it easily generate delays. The problem is not the split but in the other direction, when two branches have to join to form a train going further. If one of the train branches is delayed, it automatically delays the whole train further down, even if the other branch is on time. So this train from Ghent splitting in two branches for Lille and Poperinge is now, I think, the last of its kind.

What we still have is trains with parts not serving the entire route, but only the most crowded portion of it. Saves on rolling stock, wear and tear, and energy costs. But even that is slowly disappearing because it requires more drivers, which is our most scarce resource.

 

[stuving]

I wonder how many TERs split en route. It's not easy to find the sort of timetable that would show it. But a couple of times a day a Nantes-Pornic and a Nantes-Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie train set off coupled together and are split at Saint-Pazanne. No such pairs appear to join on the way back,

 

[nwales58]

On social media there are various videos making fun of the fact that some trains in the UK divide .. im surprised its surprising for people

or merely the fake shock needed to get the algorithms to push the content at more people. Much needs to be either outrageous or fabulous nowadays, normal gets you no views.

So these tiktok types heading for Munich airport would be shocked to end up at Freising having ignored the information system displays and announcement?

My favourite working was the loco- hauled 'Camino de Santiago' … I once travelled from Ourense to Santiago on the La Coruna portion - a single coach, diesel hauled on the classic line!

Westbound I had 5.6mW of 252 hauling a single coach Ourense-Vigo, 2 coaches went to Coruna. Can’t remember which of the four ODs did not have a through coach.

Now, double S-130 Barcelona-Salamanca+Ourense/Vigo (depending on day) split.


== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Sep 2025 ==

I wonder how many TERs split en route.

Also Bordeaux-Pau and Hendaye splitting at Dax.
Quimper-Rennes and Nantes splitting at Redon.
probably others

 

[Gordon]

On social media there are various videos making fun of the fact that some trains in the UK divide and that you have to be in the correct part of the train. Does this not happen in other countries ? im surprised its surprising for people

Human nature dictates that a person will frequently find something they are unfamiliar with or haven't seen before 'unusual' ; but then if they meet someone who experiences the same phenomenon regularly - lo and behold they discover it is commonplace.
This phenomenon is vastly exacerbated by social media. As an example, there is a picture that goes round and round on Facebook showing the Belevedere Hotel on the Furka Pass in Switzerland - each new person that comes across this posts /shares etc the 'unbelievable' view - but many of 'us' have seen it thousands of times already.

My best memory of a splitting train was meeting a Canadian couple in Italy who saw me with a copy of Cooks Timetable - We were on a train that had started on the Adriatic coast and divided somewhere (before I got on it). We were somewhere north of Livorno (on the portion heading from the Adriatic to Italian/French Riviera) and they almost cried when I told them where we were ... - ... they should have been on the portion heading south to Sicily!

.

 

[DanielB]

There is the occasional oddity (comes and goes with timetable changes) where a service advertised as through service is in fact not a through service after all. One trainset would start in Maastricht but only run until Alkmaar, a second trainset is added in Eindhoven and run until the end in Den Helder.

I've seen the opposite happen as well, when timetables weren't adjusted to the train dividing: during works in Utrecht, the Intercity to The Hague from Amersfoort occasionally had a message "rear part till Gouda" on the departure boards. In Gouda that rear part then became the IC to Rotterdam, but as the timetable didn't recognize it was one train which divided it advised to change in Gouda (to exactly the same trainset).

That service was also famous for being at the departure boards the wrong way round occasionally as the boards couldn't cope with the train reversing in Utrecht prior to dividing in Gouda.

And an example not yet mentioned here: Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen/Grindelwald. There the destinations for each section are also marked on the asphalt of the platform for tourists who don't understand dividing trains.

 

[SeanG]

Hamburg S1 divides at a 10 minute frequency in peak hours. I don't know anywhere else that has join/splits at such a frequency.

 

[U-Bahnfreund]

Some dividing moves can be very complicated: the 07:36 from Munich is split at Augsburg, with the front portion going to Ulm (RE9, 57018). Then another portion is added in Augsburg, and the former rear and the new portion continue to Donauwörth, where they split again: front portion going to Würzburg (RE80, 57118), the rear to Aalen (RE87, 57218). I'm not sure what the planned formation is, but this can also be mixed double-decker and single-decker sets as Arverio Bayern's Siemens Desiro HC and Mireo can run in multiple units together.

Also in Karlsruhe, there are tram-trains that divide. Mostly this happens in the railway area (every 20 minutes, S31/32 to Odenheim and Menzingen split/combine at Ubstadt Ort), but there are also cases of trains dividing in the tram area. Knielingen Rheinbergstraße often has trams combining/dividing for one unit to be stabled there and only to run further outwards as a single tram. Same at Karlsruhe Albtalbahnhof or Durlach when three-car tram-trains arrive: they have to split as road rules only allow two-car trams.

 

[MarcVD]

I do not know whether this still takes place today, but a few years ago, I was in Trier, Germany, and saw that there was a CFL unit coming from Luxemburg that got coupled to a german unit coming from, I think, Sarrebrück, and then continued together towards Koblenz - or may be the other way around, not sure anymore. Looks like this was an hourly service. Coupling of units from different countries must not be very frequent.

Also, 15 years ago, I was in a spanish train named "Garcia Lorca", made of those superb Arco coaches that have been sold to Portugal, origin Barcelona, with a section for Granada, another one for Malaga, and the last one to Sevilla. With a backwards exit from Valencia (loco pushing to get us back on the main line), and a reversal in Alcazar de San Juan. Talk about an expensive train to operate...

 

[U-Bahnfreund]

I do not know whether this still takes place today, but a few years ago, I was in Trier, Germany, and saw that there was a CFL unit coming from Luxemburg that got coupled to a german unit coming from, I think, Sarrebrück, and then continued together towards Koblenz - or may be the other way around, not sure anymore. Looks like this was an hourly service. Coupling of units from different countries must not be very frequent.

Yes, that still happens hourly: RE1 Mannheim - Saarbrücken - Trier - Koblenz with DB Regio Stadler Flirt single-deck EMUs and RE11 Luxembourg - Trier - Koblenz with CFL Stadler KISS double-deck EMUs. Although officially, RE11 within Germany is operated by DB Regio Mitte as is RE1.

 

[gravitystorm]

The most confusing splitting of trains that I've personally experienced was while travelling from Kraków to Austria, where the IC114 from Przemysl is advertised on all screens and announcements as going to both Prague and Budapest. I heard discussions onboard, from other tourists, wondering which city it goes to first, and some being surprised that it goes to both.

However, when it reaches Bohumin, it draws up alongside the IC131 from Warsaw, which is also advertised as going to both Prague and Budapest. The rear carriage of each train is detached, and swapped to the rear of the other train. Then one train goes to Prague, one goes to Budapest, and each train contains a mixture of carriages from different origins.

It's a clever system, but it's very badly communicated, particularly if you aren't paying 100% attention! So long as you sit in your reserved seat throughout the process, you end up in the right place. However, I wonder how many people return from the restaurant car after lunch to find their train has exactly the same number of carriages, but their baggage is apparently missing and they are heading to the wrong city!

 

[AdamWW]

It's a clever system, but it's very badly communicated, particularly if you aren't paying 100% attention! So long as you sit in your reserved seat throughout the process, you end up in the right place. However, I wonder how many people return from the restaurant car after lunch to find their train has exactly the same number of carriages, but their baggage is apparently missing and they are heading to the wrong city!

I did see someone once go to the loo in the next coach only to find that when they were done it had disappeared, along with their luggage.

 

[Segedunum]

Germany has a train that divides in to four separate portions. It is formed of four separate units. It starts off as an eight coach service and then splits in to four separate portions along the way. Carriages 1 and 2 (first unit) go to Bayreuth as the RE30 route. Carriages 3 and 4 (second unit) go to Hof as the RE31 route. Carriages 5 and 6 (third unit) go to Schwandorf as the RE40 route. Carriages 7 and 8 (fourth unit) go to Weiden as the RE41 route. This service must cause so much confusion especially as divides are not as common over there.

I've used this service a good few times from Nürnberg - I remember the first time I used it (pre-RExx designations in Bayern, too) and being rather baffled at the lash-up of units all off to various destinations - I was bound for Cheb which was just the front unit.

I think in this case it was something like front two for Cheb, middle four for Hof and rear two for Bayreuth.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

When I saw the thread title my first thought was of cross-border services which divide en-route. The DB Regio RE30/RE31/RE33 service carries an international portion to Cheb(CZ) every 2 hours.

EDIT- same service as above! Though when I used it the Cheb portion (which I was on) was the rear of three 2-car BR612 units.